Sony Xperia Z review: Zero hour

Controls

The Sony Xperia Z has a pretty standard set of functional elements above its screen. The earpiece is flanked by the front-facing camera on one side, and the ambient light and proximity sensors alongside the LED status light on the other.

A couple of sensors, an LED flash and the front-facing came keep the earpiece company

Since the Xperia Z relies on virtual navigation buttons rather than hardware ones, the microphone is all you get at the bottom. While the mic does reside under a grill identical to that of the earpiece, the smartphone doesn't have front-mounted stereo-speakers.

There's nothing but the mouthpiece below the screen

Instead, the sole loudspeaker is mounted near the bottom edge of the Xperia Z's right side. It's joined by the volume rocker and the smartphone's signature power/lock key, as well as the microSIM card slot. The SIM slot is hidden under one of the plastic flaps we mentioned above. Sadly, there's no dedicated camera key here - that's a privilege reserved for the Xperia ZL.

The right side hosts the SIM slot, the power key, the volume rocker and the loudspeaker

On top you get another plastic lid with the 3.5mm audio jack hiding underneath. While the cover prevents dust and dirt accumulation (in addition of keeping water out), it does have a somewhat negative effect on its accessibility.

The 3.5mm audio jack is on top

On the left you get the MHL-enabled microUSB with USB host support and the microSD card slot. The dock connector resides underneath the two.

The microUSB port, the mircroSD card slot and the dock connector

The bottom of the smartphone is completely bereft of functional elements.

There's not much to see at the bottom

Finally, turning our eyes to the back we spot the 13 megapixel camera lens, the LED flash and the secondary microphone. The primary use of this microphone is noise cancelling, but it also enables the Sony Xperia Z to capture video with stereo sound.

The 13 megapixel camera is joined by the LED flash and the secondary microphone at the back

Underneath the back cover sits a 2330 mAh battery that should keep the new Sony flagship going for up to 14 hours of talk-time or 530 hours of stand-by.

Handling the Sony Xperia Z

1080p display

We come to the main event of the hardware show. The Sony Xperia Z 5" 1080p display is definitely its strongest selling point and with a pixel density of 441ppi you can see what all the fuss is about.

We have already mentioned this a few times, but let's go over it once again just in case. You can actually see the sharpness advantage over the 720p displays of the 2012 flagships with a naked eye. However, the difference is by no means as big as when smartphones departed the WVGA screens and started passing the Retina barrier.

The 1080p display offers impressive sharpness

The Sony Xperia Z also comes with the second version of the company's Mobile Bravia Engine, which should improve its performance for video playback and image browsing. Thanks to that and the immense resolution, the Xperia Z has easily the best smartphone display the Japanase have produced so far. It is also the least reflective so far, which helps it perform much better in bright sunlight. Here's how it did in our dedicated sunlight legibility test.

Sunlight contrast ratio

Nokia 808 PureView4.698

Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III3.419

Samsung Omnia W3.301

Samsung Galaxy S3.155

Nokia N93.069

Samsung Galaxy Note2.970

HTC One S2.901

Samsung Galaxy S II2.832

Samsung Galaxy S II Plus2.801

Huawei Ascend P12.655

Nokia Lumia 9002.562

Sony Xperia Z2.462

Samsung Galaxy S III mini2.422

Motorola RAZR i2.366

Apple iPhone 4S2.269

HTC One X2.158

Nokia N82.144

Oppo Find 52.088

BlackBerry Z102.051

Apple iPhone 42.016

Sony Ericsson Xperia ray1.955

Samsung Galaxy Camera1.938

Sony Xperia V1.792

Sony Xperia U1.758

LG Optimus 4X HD1.691

HTC One V1.685

LG Optimus Vu1.680

HTC Desire V1.646

LG Optimus 3D1.542

Nokia Asha 3021.537

Nokia Lumia 6101.432

Gigabyte GSmart G13551.361

HTC Desire C1.300

LG Optimus L71.269

LG Optimus L91.227

Meizu MX1.221

Sony Xperia E dual1.203

Samsung Galaxy Pocket1.180

Sony Xperia tipo1.166

Samsung Galaxy mini 21.114

However, the screen is by no means perfect. First of all its viewing angles aren't really great. They are a step forward compared to the Xperia T, but a very minor one. In that area Sony still has a lot of work before it catches up with the competition.

More disturbingly, the display has rather poor contrast for a flagship unit and not really inspiring colors. As testified by the measurements in our dedicated test it comes nowhere near the standard of its main competitors and it even fared worse than its predecessor.

Battery performance

We put the Sony Xperia Z through our battery routine and it did very good. It scored 48 hours, which means you'll only need to charge the smartphone every 48 hours if you use it for an hour of talk-time, an hour of web browsing and an hour of video-watching per day.